RUSSIA MAY RECOGNISE BANGLA DESH by Dev Murarka

THE OBSERVER (London) March 28, 1971

SOVIET opinion is rapidly shifting in favour of recognising East Denial as a separate State.
Though Moscow does not propose to make any rash move, It increasingly feels that recognition by the Big Powers as early as possible is the only way to stop the slaughter in the Pakistan civil wnr.

time. We must not talk in purely theoretical terms but fact is that an unarmed people have been met with tanks.”


The Prime Minister’s statement came after an excited House had reacted with displeasure against a speech by the Foreign Minister, Mr. Swaran Singh, in which he had evidently tried to cool things down. He said his Government hoped that even at this stage, Pakistan would be able to ‘resume democratic processes.’
Basing his report on Press accounts, the Foreign Minister said that more than two divisions of the Pakistan Army were ‘deployed in suppressing the people of East Pakistan,’ and added:    ‘Our hearts go out in sympathy to the people there who are undergoing great suffering.’

Mr. Krishna Menon, the former Defence Minister, urged that India should immediately invoke the provisions of the Genocide Convention. He also'hoped that if the new Government of Bangla Desh asked for recognition, India would give it.
Meanwhile, General Sam Manekshaw, Chief of the Indian Army has hurriedly returned to Delhi from a visit to Poona.

However dubious, some of the reports now being put out chiefly by Indian news agencies, there can be little doubt that East Pakistan is in the grip of a massive upheaval. So far as any general picture emerges, it seems that, while street fighting is occurring in Dacca, the main conflicts with the Army are centred on town close to the Indian border and along the main route to Chittagong.

These are plainly the points where the main concentrations of General Yahya’s forces are likely to be—down the western side of the country against the possibility of Indian intervention and along lines of communication with Chittagong, the only source of heavy reinforcement.

At Jessore, a mass of Awami League fighters, wearing only sarongs and armed with spears and daggers, are reported trying to take over the airport.

The East Pakistan Rifles and the Bengali police are said to have joined the uprising on the Sheikh’s side.
The most dramatic single incident is reported from Dacca. An Awami League mob is said to have attacked the residence of Lieutenant-General Tikka Khan, General Yahya’s chief Military Law Administrator in East Pakistan, and killed him. General Tikka was despatched to the East earlier this month, when Sheikh Mujib proclaimed his immensely successful civil disobedience campaign. The President’s intention was that General Tikka should be appointed Governor of the Province, but patriotic East Bengal judges refused to swear him in.

All this time, Radio Pakistan has been sedulously putting out the impression that President Yahya’s military government is in full control. New military law and regulations are being regularly broadcast, ordering people to return to their work and threatening them with arrest if they fail. The radio also announced a lifting of the curfew for nine hours of daylight today and said that Press reporters were being exempted from curfew at all times.

More than 600 Britons are still in East Pakistan and the High Commission offices in Dacca are said to be out of touch with them. British women and children were evacuated some time ago. Those remaining are chiefly male members of the High Commission staff, businessmen and planters.

The Australian Government has ordered the immediate evacuation of all Australian women and children. They are the families of Colombo Plan experts and of missionaries.

A report from Calcutta says that 200 East Pakistanis crossed into India yesterday, across the West Bengal frontier, to escape from the Pakistan Army. They include the women and children and led the Indian authorities to fear a flood of refugees might follow.

Tn New Delhi, four MPs from Mrs. Gandhi’s Congress Party headed a demonstration of more than 1,000 Indians to thr» Pakistan High Commission, where they burned pictures of General Yahya and Tikka Khan and shouted demands for an end to aggression in East Pakistan.

According to Radio Pakistan, General Yahya’s Government has lodged a strong protest with India against its ‘blatant and deliberate interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs.’ No indication was given of the form this interference has taken.